This invention relates to a method and apparatus for loading bulk material into a container, and more particularly, to such a method and apparatus for compressing bulk material within a rail car.
Bulk materials such as cottonseed, cottonseed hulls, rice hulls, rice mill feed and soybean hulls are sometimes shipped in rail cars. Freight charges for shipping bulk materials via rail cars are typically calculated on a per car basis rather than on the weight of material shipped in the cars. Such bulk materials are sometimes compressed into bales for later transporting and loading onto rail cars. Baling and loading such materials may increase the weight of materials that may be carried in a rail car, but the extra steps and difficulties in baling and loading bales likely outweigh any benefits achieved. In end loaded containers, such as intermodal cargo containers, and in open top style containers, such as gondola style rail cars, equipment such as front-end loaders have sometimes been used to compress bulk material within a container. Such methods slow and disrupt loading and are not practical in rail cars with side doors. As a result, such bulk materials are typically propelled into a rail car using a conveyor belt, auger system, blower system, or some similar bulk material moving equipment and without using any form or method of compressing the material during or after loading.